Application

β-Galactosidase Reporter Gene Staining Kit has been used for histochemical staining of animal cells or tissues such as: sagittal brain sections in histoenzymologypancreas or colon sections in β-galactosidase reporter gene assaymice E10.5 -11.5 embryo and embryo sections

General description

β-galactosidase (β-gal) catalyzes the conversion of X-gal to galactose and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-hydroxyindole. The functionality of β-gal is indirectly measured by the blue precipitate of dimeric 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-hydroxyindole in the presence of potassium ferricyanide or ferrocyanide. The colorimetric detection methods also use other substrates of β-gal like O-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG). β-gal is a cost-effective, simple and standard reporter system. The Galactosidase Reproter Gene Staining Kit provides a method for determining the percentage of cells transfected with the plasmid expressing the β-galactosidase gene, LacZ. It can also be used to visualize the specific expression of the reporter gene in tissue sections by microscopy.

Other Notes

The substrate used in this kit is X-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl β-D-galactopyranoside) which results in an indigo blue-colored staining of transfected cells and tissues. This test provides a method for determining the percentage of transfected cells that are expressing LacZ or for microscopically visualizing reporter gene expression in tissue sections.